For all the accolades we rightly give George R.R. Martin, the author behind Game of Thrones, and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners, what often goes underappreciated is the work of casting directors Nina Gold and Robert Sterne. Consider the fact that they’ve taken a collection of barely known character actors and nobodies and assembled one of the best ensemble casts on television. I haven’t read the books, but it’s rare that I hear anyone complain that a particular character has been miscast. Consider that, when Game of Thrones began, the most famous actor on the show was Sean Bean, which was purposeful as it made the most recognized actor’s outcome all the more shocking.

Moreover, thanks to the success of Game of Thrones, many of the actors involved in the series have gained incredible fame, big enough in many cases to translate into feature-film success. Obviously, many of these actors were already bouncing around Hollywood and in British television, but two seasons of Game of Thrones have made them near iconic. No one had ever heard of Emilia Clarke before Game of Thrones, and now she’s tabloid fodder. It’s impressive.

But how well has that really translated into the world outside of Westeros? Better for some than for others. Here, however, is a look at the 10 actors most likely to come away with promising feature film careers.

Honorable Mention: Gwendoline Christie — Christie has absolutely no feature films on her slate, and only has one other British series — Russel T. Davies Wizards and Aliens — on her CV that’s even noteworthy. But she has a certain eccentric look about her that suggests that she could end up taking Tilda Swinton’s sloppy seconds for the next decade.

9. Sophie Turner — Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, most likely has a direct-to-DVD future in front of her, including Panda Eyes, in which she’s first billed alongside some relatively well known actors like Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Claire Forlani in an Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me) film. It’ll do the festival rounds and be forgotten, and unless Sophie Turner makes a bigger mark in GoT‘s future, so shall she.

8. Jason Momoa — Momoa was the show’s very first break-out star. Unfortunately, he frittered away that popularity on the Conan the Barbarian remake, which tanked at the box office (despite being unintentionally hilarious) and as the villain in Stallone’s Bullet to the Head, which fared even worse at the box office. He was up for a juicy role in Guardians of the Galaxy, but he let it slip through his fingers by trying to negotiate a higher salary. Idiot. Now he’s been reduced to third-rate Redbox fare, including Wolves and Debug — starring a bunch of nobodies, directed by nobodies — and Road to Poloma, written and directed by himself, in which his real-life girlfriend, Lisa Bonet, plays opposite him.

7. Richard Madden — Madden, who plays Robb Stark, has a few projects in the works, including The Long Promise opposite Rebecca Hall (The Town), but what makes Madden’s future possibly bright is that he’s being rumored for the role of Prince Charming in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella. That movie also stars Cate Blanchett, and would be a very high-profile role for Madden if he lands the gig. Otherwise, Madden will likely return from whence he came: British television.

6. Emilia Clarke — I’m still uncertain on Clarke’s feature film career. I think she’d probably do fine in British or American television after Game of Thrones (although, not being a book reader, I have no idea how long she’ll be on GoT), but her feature film career seems a little dicey. She has one film in the hopper, a Jude Law film called Dom Hemingway , in which she would play his love interest. There’s not any buzz about the film, and the writer/director, Richard Shepard, is of little note (at least so far), so it’s hard to know if the film will help her break-out.

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT: The Battle of Monte Cassino is one of the battles where Wojtek the solider bear carried munitions for the Polish army. That means we could be getting him on screen, which definitely explains the star making ability of that film.

War movies have traditionally made a lot of money; Lawrence of Arabia, The Longest Day, To Hell and Back, many films with John Wayne, Patton, Platoon, etc. Even those that didn’t make quite as much are often surefire Oscar bait.

If a dude’s directorial claim-to-fame is that he directed Hamburger Hill well…guess what…any film with the budget required to show a battle with 200 000+ people ain’t getting made with that guy behind the camera. Hamburger Hill wasn’t exactly a great film and it was 15+ years ago.

@Kam Battle of Moscow=1,000,000 casualties. Battle of Stalingrad= 1.2 million casualties. Battle of Budapest=400,000 casualties. Batter of Berlin=1.3 million casualties. Almost all of the Eastern front battles were insanely more horrific than the Western front. Then when you look at the numbers of Chinese and Japanese killed and casualties, they are even more horrifying.

Monte Cassino was between 180k and 200K over the course of 4 separate sieges by the British, Americans, South Africans, French, Kiwis, Canadians, Indians, the British again, then the Poles before the German and Italians finally just left and the allies took the hill.

I like all of these actors, but you paint a bleak picture for some people with remarkable talent. Sophie Turner is amazing, much better than her predicted ceiling is direct to DVD films. And Jon “blank stare, mouth agape” Snow is a breakout star? I just don’t understand show business.

I’d have to take a look at one of the GoT scripts, if “blank stare, mouth agape” is actually one of the written directions he might well be the greatest actor alive.
(I guess the alternative would be to check if he also does it throughout the Silent Hill movie, but that would involve a lot more watching the Silent Hill movie than I’m prepared to do.)

Yeah, I think he’s basing this solely on projects they already have in the works. I would put Sophie and Maisie near the top of this list if we’re talking about potential, and I would give Richard Madden a better chance of a successful post-GOT career than Harrington.

Saw Oblivion this weekend and liked it more than I thought. Coster-Waldau was pretty decent in it, though not in a huge role sense. Still, I hope he continues to do well. Also, Lena Heady gets all my love after her naked in 300.

A lot of these predictions seem way off. Jason Momoa shouldn’t even be on this list since his “career” is a joke now. And Sophie Turner’s film is an indie from a respected director and will serve to put her on more casting shortlists. That movie was never destined for box office success, but that won’t matter in the end. She’s young, beautiful, and talented A.K.A she’s very marketable. And Kit’s film choices are pretty awful, so I don’t see how he’s listed as #1 here.

It’s *The Station Agent,* it’s delightful, Peter Dinklage is delightful in it, Bobby Cannavale is delightful in it, it makes New Jersey seem delightful. The image of Dinklage diving off the road, twice, to avoid being run over by Patricia Clarkson will always make me smile.

“The film is about a bloody World War II battle where 200,000 soldiers were killed”

You got the war right I’ll give you that, but the casualties number, for both sides, combined, is a lot closer to 80,000 than 200,000. I know you got picked on for typos and things like that but for Christ’s sake do you even read the stuff your write, or just throw a bunch of crap up there and figure it’s the internet, no one’s going to know any better?

Coster-Waldau is already 42. A little too old to take over the Bond franchise. I’m sure Daniel Craig has at least one more Bond film in him. When it’s time to cast the new Bond, Coster-Waldau will be too old to carry the franchise for a decade.

I don’t think any of them is going to go anywhere. GoT is Battlestar Galactica. I thought everybody on BSG was headed for stardom, but it wasn’t the acting, it was the writing/storytelling.

I thought Tricia Helfer and Grace Park were going to be making all the movies because they handled playing the different aspects of the different copies of their characters really well, and outside of a “Well, is she really hot?” contest they’re better at everything than Katherine Heigl… and then I watched Hawaii Five-0 and all the USA Network crime dramas that Tricia Helfer has guest starred on.

The same thing happened on The Wire. Who on that show wasn’t great? Why doesn’t Jamie Hector get steady work?

All the characters are awesome on GoT. Carrot Top could play Jaime Lannister and everyone would be talking about his untapped acting chops. I’m in a Fool Me Once frame of mind with TV actors, that’s why I don’t think any of them will become huge stars.

To a point. I’m of the opinion that stellar delivery makes good writing even better, but beyond that, watch Sansa’s face when Marge Tyrell asks her if she wants to mary Loras. Watch Varys and Littlefinger’s scenes together. Watch Jaime’s back and forth with Locke. Watch Arya do any goddam thing. Each of those are scenes where the actors took great material and ran with it; I’ve read the books, and the show is straight up superior to what I pictured in my head. I say that’s a credit to all involved, especially the actors who have become the definitive interpretation of these characters.

I never really found anyone outside of James Callis and Olmos to be even good actors. And I found several of the performances to be awful. The material helped them quite a bit. I think this comparison is awful.

I am aware of her de-robing in The Tudors, but I simply refuse to watch anything with that smug-faced bastard Jonathan Rhys Meyers in it.
Mind you were we to get some Dormer boobage in GOT we might have to put up with Joffrey’s cunt-y little face.
Is a lesbian love scene with Daenarys hoping for too much?

I’ve seen a lot of people mention Richard Madden as a possibility for the next Bond, whenever Daniel Craig is done with it. I think he’d be around the right age, after Craig makes a couple more of them.

I would have went with Massie Williams and Sophie Turner, they’ll be two of the only people in the cast on the right side of 30 when the show wraps up, and they’ve both done great jobs. Especially Williams.

Could this article be any stupider? I stopped reading at the point where you said Emilia Clark plays Jude Law’s love interest in Dom Hemingway. She plays his daughter. If you are going to spew negativity, at least get your facts right.